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A novel by Kirk Stapp
Review by Becky St. Marie
Mammoth Times Staff
 Reviewing a book by a high school English teacher is a daunting task. You know the teacher has read every book worth reading and analyzed each one into oblivion – each and every year with different students. You know he knows characters and plots, devices and details, commas and quotations, but can that teacher write – can he take all he’s taught and put it into words? In short, can he practice what he’s preached for all these years?
That is the question I had when I volunteered to review Teaching Iraq by Mammoth Lakes’ resident, recently retired high school English teacher and longtime town council member Kirk Stapp.
In this novel, Stapp presents a character not too unlike himself it would seem, high school teacher Jason Cord, who teaches in a small town called Lake Mary.
Cord teaches American literature and government and it is in his government class that the story unfolds of how he is to teach about Iraq; not as history, but a current affair – as the war for his students’ generation; their Vietnam.
Cord’s views are what would be labeled “liberal” by most standards, creating tension with the more “right-wing” parents and school administration in Lake Mary.
In this 411-page novel, Stapp presents several characters: Cord, the protagonist and somewhat self-proclaimed “hero figure”; Salvucci, the dim-witted, parent-pleasing principal and thorn in Cord’s side; Matt, a former student posted in Iraq; Matt’s sister Lucy, Cord’s current student and a zealous “end-time” Christian; and finally, Matt and Lucy’s father, Pastor Parris, a local preacher who proselytizes about the end times and encourages war as a means to that end.
Other characters come and go, some flat, as they say in character analysis – just a minor character who helps move the story – and a few that are a bit more multi-faceted, although often a little cliché. The narrative weaves from Lake Mary High School to Vietnam in 1966 then to Baghdad, Iraq as the story unfolds.
The main plot revolves around the extremist preacher and his children, who are questioning their upbringing and coming into their own, and the teacher who finds himself helping them, along with his other students.
It is a struggle between what Cord sees as their ignorance and religious zealotry with his own rational thinking and “truth.” He touches on existentialism – quoting Camus – and looks to Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut to explain the meaning, or meaninglessness, of life.
Along the way, Cord often comes across as more than a little preachy himself, often seeming the same as his nemesis, Pastor Parris, in his absolute belief that he is right, except that he is on the left.
Overall, the concept of a Vietnam-veteran-turned-teacher trying to shine a light on the war in Iraq to let his students know that it may not be a just or even constitutional war and that they may want to reconsider joining the military is solid; intriguing even.
Cord uses typical teaching tools – graphs and bulletin boards – to build his case and pull his students, and the reader, into the discussion; tools that Stapp must have used over the years.
Thus as a reader, and someone who has worked with Stapp personally, I found it hard to separate the author, Stapp, from the character, Cord.
I kept asking myself what part of the story might be true or if some of the characters where based on anyone I knew. Yet as with many authors, it is sometimes impossible not to pull from your own reality.
In Teaching Iraq, Ernest Hemingway’s works play a key role in a discussion of the realities of war. Matt, the former student who is in the midst of the fighting in Iraq, asks Cord why Hemingway’s protagonists, the code hero, always fail. The answer, it seems, lies is in who Hemingway was and the demons he was battling after being in war himself.
After years of teaching, Stapp may be excising himself of some of his own demons, how he struggled to teach his students, some who may have seen things his way and some who may have disagreed.
Those who live in or know Mammoth will undoubtedly find it in these pages, sometimes subtly (in the portrayal of Lake Mary’s small-town politics) and some not so much (a scene at Horseshoe Lake amid the trees dead from carbon dioxide.)
While this work may not be Hemingway caliber, it is interesting and thought provoking if you agree with Stapp’s politics and possibly maddening if you don’t. It was hard not to note a few typos among the pages – an indicator that even a teacher can make mistakes – this time he won’t be graded down for it.
Q & A with Author Kirk Stapp
Why did you decide to write Teaching Iraq?
I was angry, frustrated and saddened with the direction in which President Bush was taking America: his signing statements that ignored Congressional legislation if he thought they impinged on his belief in a unitary President; his violations of the Constitution, international treaties, and the Geneva Conventions; his use of torture, rendition, censorship, warrantless surveillance of Americans; his pre-emptive war with Iraq, etc. I also wondered what an American Government teacher should tell his students about the Bush years in the White House and the cowardly Democrats and Republicans in Congress who won’t stand up for the rule of law?
What parts were taken from your own experiences as a teacher?
The principal, students and parents are fictional. In the classroom scenes, I tried to create situations in which I could explore issues, conflicts and the real world.
Were you in Vietnam?
Yes, I served in Vietnam and was shot (wounded) three times. And, although the book is fiction, the ambush, hospital descriptions, the Pigs from Heaven episode and other scenes come from my experiences. Sozniack was also a real person, a good friend and my mentor.
Of all the topics you have taught, why did the war in Iraq become the main plot?
I was intrigued by the questions: What are teachers supposed to tell their students about the war in Iraq, about joining the military and about today’s media, which provides hysterical infotainment? What is a teacher supposed to tell his students about waterboarding? What is a teacher supposed to tell his student about international oil companies taking control of Iraq’s oil for the next 20 to 25 years.
Why fiction?
Fiction allows an author to go places where nonfiction can’t go.
What do you hope happens with the book?
I am currently in the process of re-editing the first printing of Teaching Iraq. I am embarrassed and dumbfounded by the number of errors that remained in the first printing: spelling, grammar, punctuation. I hope to have a second printing out by the end of July. It is also my hope that I can find an agent to represent the book and it will become a best seller.
Will you continue to write?
Yes. I am currently working on a sequel with a focus on the Obama Administration, the surge into Afghanistan, and the feckless Democrats in Congress. |
